Wunderkind

1.19-Compass

ARGENTINA

HEAT AND DUMPSTERS DON'T MIX WELL

"You know what this reminds me of?" Jack asks, trying to ignore the truly disgusting smell inside the dumpster. It beats getting our heads blown off, though.

"You're gonna say Star Wars, aren't you?" Mac is currently digging through the bags of trash like an oversize raccoon. "You do realize that if we're going with that reference, that makes you Princess Leia cause you picked this hiding spot?"

Jack guesses he asked for that one. "Well, somebody has to save our skins. And kid, you call me Princess again and you'll be digging your way out of that pile of trash instead of into it." Mac grins, teeth startling white against the grime on his face, and then the smile disappears as there's a creaking groan and Jack begins to feel like the walls are closing in. Literally.

"Okay, I regret saying this reminds me of Star Wars," Jack says. "Because now it really does and I don't like it. Hey, you think we can get outta this the same way they did, Mac? Can we brace it with something?" There better not be some eerie trash monster in here waiting to eat us. Or even a snake. So far all he's seen are a few lizards and a truly disgusting number of flies.

Mac turns around, frowning. There's even more grime on his face than before, Jack guesses he wiped away sweat without thinking. Matty's gonna be mad when we get the exfil vehicle filthy. They'll probably need to clean up and change before getting in the jet. "Jack, they got out by calling the droids for help."

"Right. Well, lucky for us, we've got backup too." He taps his comms. "You gettin' me up there, R2?"

"I asked you never to call me that again unless it means I get to curse at you in binary. Well, I got good news and bad news for you guys. Good news, the general's men don't seem to know where you are."

"Then why are they trying to turn us into pancakes?" Jack asks.

"They're not. The compactor's automatic. It's on a timer."

He turns back to Mac. "See, told you this was a good hiding spot."

"It's a terrible hiding spot." Mac shakes his head. "In about...five minutes, that sled's going to hit that wall, so either we climb back out and take our chances with the guards, or we die in here. And it won't be pretty." Mac's got a handful of random items he dug out of the trash bags, but he doesn't seem to be doing anything with them, and his hands are shaking slightly.

"If you guys come out of there, you'll be shot on sight. There's three trigger-happy looking guards right next to that dumpster."

They're running out of options and Jack refuses to die in a dumpster. Half because it's not going to look good on the mission report, and half because this really is his fault and he's not going to let Mac die an agonizing death because of him. "Riley, can you hack the controls?"

"Nope. Pretty much everything in this place predates wifi, Jack."

Bozer speaks up. "There's only three guards, we could take them out, get to the controls."

"Stand down threepio, you're going to get yourself shot in the face."

"Wait, I'm the droid who does nothing but complain?" Jack tunes him out and turns back to Mac, who looks like he's at a loss, staring around the shrinking room like a door is going to magically appear. Jack moves toward him, maybe if he goads the kid enough it'll kickstart something in his brain. His foot hits a pipe, and he picks it up. It's long enough that it would give them enough space if it held the wall back. Mac already said that wasn't an option, but if Jack brings it up again maybe Mac will start arguing with sciency words and figure something out.